Black Gum

by J. David Osborne

After his life spirals out of control, a young man navigates a world of juggalos, transients, and petty criminals with Shane, an enigmatic small-time drug dealer with a penchant for body modification.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Bizarro Fiction, Comedy, Noir

120 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 2015

About the author

J David Osborne lives in Oklahoma with his wife and son.

Reviews

[Janie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fucking raw and beautiful. Bask in it.

[John The Crippledgimp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn..... I devoured this one. This book straight up pulled me in and held me captive till I finished it. This book kind reminded me of the Larry Clark film KIDS. Truly fucking awesome read. One hell of a first read to start the New Year.

[Danger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always raw and emotionally real, this story about a young man losing himself (and subsequently rediscovering some of the pieces) in the wake of troubled relationship, lingered in my thoughts long after finishing it. Written in punchy chapters, with bits of wisdom sprinkled between these darkly depressing and darkly comedic scenes, this was really great stuff.

[Maciek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Gum is a book which can be read in a single sitting, but also one that packs a whole lot of punch for its short length. It's emotional, it's intense and it's also raw, gritty and real - I could easily see the characters that populate its pages and even relate to them.

The book does not feature what could be described as a conventional plot; it follows the journey, or rather the downfall, of one young man, who knows that his life is falling apart, but does absolutely nothing to stop it. Even worse - he is perfectly aware that his choices not only not help him, but actively make the situation worse, and that the only consistency in his character is driving himself and those around him down. Still, despite all this, we cannot help but feel sympathetic towards him, and want him to succeed and turn his life around, against all odds. Will he, or won't he? You have to read the novel to find out, and I know I'll be reading more by this author.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I'm not sure it's for everyone, but it scratched every itch I had and reminded me of my own writing style, though Osborne's is a little leaner than mine. I bought this after someone recommended the author to me when I'd mentioned I was looking for "light bizarro." I will admit to not digging the end as much as the rest of the book. While I didn't expect anything super climatic, it fell pretty flat, particularly when every chapter in the book ended perfectly. Osborne could have given us one more zinger in the last paragraph. All in all, I'm a huge fan and if the rest of Osborne's stuff is like this I'll be eating it up. I need more books like this.

[David Keaton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gritty white trash revolution that we were promised during Frank Bill's Crimes of Indiana book tour never did quite materialize (though I swear I saw someone at a reading praise it by saying, "Finally a book for men who change their own tires!"), and instead we got a lot of copycats and tough guy "neo-noir" nonsense, and Bill's own series was capped off in a more exaggerated post-apocalyptic arena anyway with The Savage, the inevitable conclusion less concerned with "real men" but finally unhinged enough to suit the over the top/sometimes exhilarating violence of his best work. But realism was never really part of that equation, or that promise, so the "real" revolution was happening under the radar, at least under the grimy cloud of disreputable indie presses. Osborne, following sort of/not quite in the footsteps of national treasure Scott McClanahan and his Crapalachia and Sarah Book (I'd also include Kelby Losack, and Michael Kazepis, who splintered off with his own press during this quieter working-class uprising), was low-key but dutifully clocking in to provide us with what we were actually craving: irresponsible, thoughtful, bonkers, problematic, unfashionable but thoroughly masculine works. My *one* gripe with this book is my usual grumblings, meaning (like with A Minor Storm) it left me chewing without getting to swallow sometimes (and how skeevy did that just sound out loud?). But it does seem like there might be some rationing going on? Like we might be getting splintered sections of a larger "unpalatable" tome? No matter though, as the unassuming, bite-sized nature of these slim, black books reap surprisingly satisfying rewards. And either way, I'll devour these chunks for as long as I can get my teeth on them. Eat 'em up like popcorn, the burnt kernels that always cut up your gums.

[Dave Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Osborne's LOW DOWN DEATH RIGHT EASY last year and thought it was great. This is better than that. All those drunk, unemployed, disillusioned parents in Raymond Carver stories? Their kids are in BLACK GUM and they are drunk and high and listening to Insane Clown Posse. They work on cars or work at the mall or can't find work. They love their moms the best they can. They sometimes have guns. They have sex to feel good and they have sex to feel bad. They love to punch each other because it's the best answer to most of the questions in their lives. In the end, somehow, BLACK GUM is a story about wanting to build a better life, even if you have to use degradation as bricks. There's a great line in here that says, "Every young man fights the truth that he's half his father." That's one of the things I learned from this book. Another was to bring my mom a Reese's peanut butter cup once in a while. Read the book to learn the rest. BLACK GUM is a little Bible and, like the Bible, filled with prophecy and terrible truths.

[Ju$tin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 and a quarter star

This was my first novel by J. David Osbourne and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I wrote down a few quotes from the book that I liked:

"

A tweaker took me aside and started up. His girlfriend was pregnant and he was scared. “I”m looking forward to being a dad, I’m gonna be the best dad ever, he said, “but I don’t know.”

Some of the contestants were very good. The young girls imitated what they’d seen in porn, which was fine by us. An old women with big hair and a sparkly Eiffel Tower shirt moaned monotone and said, “That’s it. That’s the way.”
We repeated that throughout the night. “That’s the way.”

Most notably my attention was on the girl on the couch.
When the garage party dissipated, Shane went back inside and looked back at me and mouthed the words “next level” and then it was just us and I say across from her. She had bunch of holes in her jeans and I told her “I can see your pussy through those rips,” and she spread her legs a little wider and she smiled and got up and left.


The woman had a face that looked ready to fall off.

But the old Indian chick has this prosthetic leg, and she’d sit at the blackjack table and she’d try to use her leg like a sword. Tried to knight the dealer. When she was at the slots, she’d try to knight the slot machine.

We lay on the floor and bit into Keystone cans and poured the beer on our faces. … There was a standing inch of beer on the linoleum and there were purple and green layers to it and I dug my toes into it like sand.

I stared crying into my fiesta chicken. She came around the table and gave me a hug.

"


All in all I thought it was a good piece of work and look forward to reading others by David and someday when I have space for a library again I will buy the paperback copy and display it proudly

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 5 out of 5]

BLACK GUM is a very masculine read in the sense that it deals with the male process of experiencing loss and subsequently finding your bearings. I love J. David Osborne's concept of contemporary heathenism, which is something I've had on my mind and heart for several years and couldn't find words to correctly explain. BLACK GUM would be a Bukowskian experience if Bukowski would've taken only hard drugs and would've lived ten more years in the gutter. I've really experienced strong emotions reading this book as it was both outlandish and terrifyingly true. It's a quick, daring and oddly tender novel about the people we consciously turn our back on.

There are heathens living today and they are walking among us.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to be honest with you here, and tell you that I really have a hard time reading living books.

Living books are part of my own private lexicon, I guess, and they refer to books written A) by living writers who B) I have met and C) who have written whatever it is I'm reading by them pretty recently. I grew up how most of us grew up, I think -- thinking of books as passive parts of history that sort of sit, inertly, waiting for you to engage with them or not. For someone who has to gear themselves up for conversations with people, whose natural state is not being part of active interaction, who has to make decisions about talking with actual people on a daily basis, living books demonstrate a confusing oxymoron that, at best, short out my circuits and, at worst, send me into a bit of a death spiral. The living book demands my attention, forces me to consider the life of the person who wrote it in a very real way. It's not an escape -- it's a migration of conversation into a part of my brain where, traditionally, I do not expect to invite living people.

So I have a hard time with reading living books.

I met David (who I am allowed to call by this name) at a writing conference in the spring. He'd written a story for an anthology I was editing and I really liked the story quite a bit, so he was someone I was very happy to meet, and I told him so. He was on the other side of the table, selling books, and he struck me as very young and very tired. He talked about how much he hated poetry within the first three minutes of our conversation, which made me like him more, not because I also hate poetry but because there was something comforting about a person who'd say they hated poetry at a writing conference. I decided I was going to buy a book from him, and picked up Black Gum, because it was something I recognized from the internet and because it was, yknow, a pretty metal-looking book.

And he sort of glanced over to it casually while I looked at it and said something like, "Oh, yeah, that's just about something that happened to me one time," like that, which sort of downplayed how metal the book looked, but I bought it from him and decided I was excited about reading it and brought it home and promptly put it on the shelf -- buried it on the shelf, really -- for five months because, like I said: living books.

I've been reading a lot this summer, a lot a lot, for me, and really finding that doing a lot of reading has, for the first time in a long time, just helped me to chill the fuck out, really, and I'm able to think slowly and patiently in ways that I don't think I've been able to do since I was maybe twelve in my bedroom just reading and eating Sunchips for hours and hours.

And, to be honest, I really didn't want to fuck up my run on this one. In a row I've read a bunch of Dune books and finished 2666, you know -- some books that are really fucking dead -- and I have a few other things to get to but, shit, Black Gum was just sort of looking at me from the bottom shelf. Cooling.

I read it in about two days -- really a day with falling asleep in the middle. I don't actually know if this is something that really happened to David. I mean, it's not impossible, but jesus fuck -- if it's true? That is some hard fucking shit. Black Gum is easiest and most quickly described as almost a direct response to Jesus' Son -- it's about the same length and covers the same inky filth of drugs and sorrow in an empty rural space. And like with Jesus' Son, I saw a lot of things in the book I could relate to -- I'm from a small town with a sadness and a desperation to it too, and although Black Gum is not particularly about the landscape, there's a feeling that this sort of thing, the awfulness of what happens, could not unfold in a city. In a place that actual people actually live.

David says he doesn't like poetry, but Black Gum reads like it was written by someone who's read a lot of poetry. It's got an understanding of phrase and line. It's about a young person who, essentially, falls down a well. I don't think it's possible, in our modern times when everything is just sort of horrible and that's taken for granted, and expectations for success are so high and failure is just sort of looming all the time -- I don't think it's possible to go through youth (and by youth I mean everything up to and including 30, and maybe past 30) without just falling down your own personal deep fucking well. And this book is one of them, a well, and it's very sad and makes no attempt to glorify or put a point on the sadness. It's not a grand statement and nothing gets uncovered and the only solace to be found is, at best, relative. The narrator, who may or may not be someone J David Osborne is or was, is neither a silver-spooned Holden Caulfield, nor a born-dumb-and-amoral F.H. He's just sort of a shitty person going through a shitty time, which feels real to me, and not self-aggrandized or unconsidered. The language is poetic. The story is not.

I don't really know how this young, tired-looking guy I met at a writing conference wrote this book. Denis Johnson wrote Jesus' Son when he was over 40, in installments for the New Yorker, and that sort of information takes a lot of the bite out of that particular work. The parts of my life that have been the lowest were pretty mundane by comparison with anything that happens in these pages, and I still don't think I'll ever be able to write about them, or understand them, until I'm almost dead. And if this is all an elaborate con, or a total misremember on my part, and Black Gum is complete fiction -- again, I don't know how it got written. It's the sort of story a stranger tells to you on a midnight Greyhound just before they pass out. It's a story that feels like it's in the middle of happening told by someone who's too punch-drunk to even realize how much they've been beaten.

Writers are, by and large, boring people. At best, they can be pleasant and at worst, they are very much not. But mostly boring. You will probably never meet a real-life Hunter Thompson, and if you do, they probably won't know how to write. Mostly they'll just steal from you and drink your beer. I've never had a beer with David but I've got a feeling he pays for his.

Anyway. Black Gum. Living books. A young guy at a writing conference who hates poetry, but wrote a poem anyway.

[Pax · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting story. The way it is written is almost stream of consciousness, which I dont mind at all but I can see that maybe not being everyone's cup of blood. I am on to the next of his books!

[James Trench · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been deep into 40K lore, but decided to take a break from the Grim Dark Future and delve into this short novel that I found recommended on a random website I found whilst trying to watch a movie illegally online. I believe that is a good metaphor (if that the right word?) for the book. It was unexpected, but not exactly what I was after.

It was a cursed look into American 'white trash' culture and was very hard to put down. The character work was wicked for such a short novel, it was extremely well written and makes me want to read more of J David Osborne. It was however, a novel that I have no idea what meaning I was meant to get out of the book other than a desire to never visit rural America or meet anyone named Shane.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do most people do when their marriage suddenly falls apart?

For the protagonist of Black Gum, J. David Osborne’s slim and sinister 2015 novel, the answer is seemingly simple: He moves in with his friend Charlie, a mechanic in the tiny town of Comanche, Oklahoma, until his wife takes him back.

The book settles into a kind of slacker story of recreational drugs and blue collar doldrums until Charlie’s cousin Shane arrives with an odd request: He wants Charlie to tattoo his gums. When asked why he would want such a thing, Shane replies, “When I meet the devil, I want him to know I’m a friendly guy.”

A few pages later, Charlie admits his cousin is “a little off.”

That goes without saying, but just as “off” is the mystery that drives this unreservedly gritty and unapologetically masculine novel to its tantalizing, psychosexual conclusion.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raw

This was raw and gritty. I love Osborne's minimalist style. Everything is straightforward. No over description. It's just this is what's happening and this is how its done. Osborne takes us on a ride with a man who splits from his wife and stays with a friend. They do drugs, sell drugs, have wild parties. You know, heathen stuff. It reminds me of my twenties actually. It's just a down to earth look at a youthful American white male that I found myself relating to quite a bit. I can't say I liked the way it ended though. It seemed like Osborne ran out of things to talk about, but it doesn't hurt my rating. It is still a book that I'd recommend d to anyone interested in heathen fiction.

[Kal burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short read, but one that I quite enjoyed. Osborne, even in about 100 pages, manages to exemplify the downward spiral of a man who has lost everything he held most dear, his traverse into midlife crisis on his way to hitting rock bottom, and his journey back to himself. He sort of… encompasses that feeling after a breakup, when it feels like your heart has suffered irreparable damage, but you finally get to the acceptance stage of your grief, and remember that you were your own person before that- the part where you realize your life is just beginning, and you see the road ahead toward taking steps that lead you back to who you are and always have been, picking up the pieces you might have lost to the relationship.

Looking forward to books 2 and 3!

[Brandon Nagel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A drug fueled tripped out zinger of a book. After reading the sparse and powerful prose, I was thinking that this was not some made up story, this was a story that JDO lived. Possibly a memoir of sorts. I loved the rave scene in the late 90's and early 2000's and JDO hit the nail on the head when describing the look and actions of the club kids and ravers. I have also run into a Juggalo or two in my life. I picked up the book this morning and I was finished by 7 pm. Loved it.

[Edward Rathke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. Hilarious, sometimes gruesome, sometimes sweet and tender, but also just so engrossing. Also has the most accurate scene of a trip I've maybe ever read.

Takes about an hour or two to read and is so worth the time.

[Scott Cumming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Benoit's review alerted me the Bukowskian element of this novel and after discovering it was available on Kindle Unlimited, I leapt at the chance to read it.

I've wanted to read some JDO for a while now and wasn't disappointed with this. It's gritty, raw, but also humourous in a dark way. It captures the essence of how lost males live today finding shelter in sex, drugs and crime.

With its episodic nature it might have faltered in lesser hands, but you can see the talent of JDO in holding on to your interest despite the story jumping around quickly.

I'll be eager to find more JDO, but most of his books are either unavailable or on sale for wild prices.

[Stuart Coombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, sharp - a virtual slap in the face it’s so raw. Loved it, to form such believable characters and go on a journey with the main protagonist - who manages to both lose himself then find some redemption - in such a short novel is a great credit to the author. Will check out his other work.

[Adrian Coombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love JDO. His style is stripped back to the bare bones. It pulls you along at warp speed. This story is life and I think cause I can relate to it so much it really hits home. The brevity of words matches the underlying current if the book. A definite 5/5

[PhattandyPDX · Rating 5 out of 5]

A David Lynch, Southern Gothic:

“They showed me the weapon of the apocalypse. Three shapes. I shut my eyes and went to the deepest door in my brain and opened it and touched the darkest ink. They told me if I didn’t get away I would die. I checked my ass again. For as long as I was awake, I was convinced that I was shitting on the floor.“

[EdIsInHell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Silly nonsense that reads like it was written by a 15 year old.

No point, no story. Don't waste your time.

Read it twice in a few hours to give a fair chance but come on seriously.

Wouldn't read part II if there was a gun to my head.

Not going to sugar coat shit sorry.

[Don Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reads like a new thing, a new genre. Part Ellroy, part Carver, with a dash of Bukowski. Real, raw, like a wound you can't stop picking.

[Kevin Berg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first experience with J. David Osborne, and I really enjoyed the read. Black Gum does exactly as the blurb promises, and introduces you to the downward spiral of a man who has suffered the ultimate betrayal. It was fun to jump into this story and come face to face with the people you see across the street, or living on the streets, or remember from your past. Rowdy parties and drug use and sex and sadness and everything necessary for an interesting story.

I am never one for spoilers, if I summarize the plot for you here, then you won't get the full experience. Your appreciation of Black Gum, and the skills this author brings with it, will be stunted and insincere.

I felt the story was told well, and the voice was enough to hold my interest throughout. It is relatively short, so that made for a quick read. I was able to sit and enjoy this in one sitting. The characters were really well drawn, and the plot was paced really well, bringing back a lot of memories from earlier in life. At least, the parts I can remember. Just read it, you will see.

Three months after I finished this one, I am still thinking about the story, and this review. It didn't take me this long to know this was a fantastic read, but like anything you visit later your brain has time to process and understand and appreciate more. The book shares that this is Mr. Osborne's third, so I will definitely be picking up the other ones. There were some really funny lines from the story, and some great situations he was able to throw the characters into, so it is well worth the read.

Invest a little bit of your time and read this story. You won't be disappointed.

[Martin Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Black Gum has a Carver-esque clarity to it, insofar as it has simple, pared-back prose, that gets on with telling the story. It doesn't posture or strike a false pose. The moments of weirdness that punctuated Osborne's LDDRE are weaved into the text more coherently here (Shane's body modification, Juggalo parties, the narrator's strange trip at the end). What little action there is has no grandiose feel, more like the blink-and-you'll miss them moments of real life, and I liked that Danny Ames' appearance here is done without any real violence (he appears, the characters realise resistance is futile and do what they're told). If you're looking for balls-to-the-wall crime action you won't find it here, but what you will find is quality, character-based fiction with criminality weaved through it. Highly recommended.

[Bob Comparda · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first experience with J. David Osborne and will not be my last as I immediately ordered the other two books that make up the black gum trilogy. I knew I was going to love it right away when I saw an Aesop Rock lyric quoted on the first page. This book was short and quick and weird like an adult swim series, but still raw and real and reminded me of a lot of the shadier situations I have found myself in or around. The main character spends most of his time hanging with his buddy Charlie and Charlie's cousin, Shane. Shane is a scumbag and Charlie even warns his friend to be careful hanging around his cousin. That doesn't stop them from going to parties, doing plenty of drugs, hanging with juggalos, and getting in way over their heads in a bad situation. I loved this book and would recommend to anybody who likes drug filled crime stories.

[Matt Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first exposure to J.David Osbourne's writing is a brutal, devastating one. He perfectly captures life on the fringes of the American south, a barrage of dirty weirdness, constantly underlined with the silent electricity of threat. This book will smash you in the face with brass knuckles, apologize, give you an oxycodone to wash down with cheap beer, sit you down on the couch and explain the interconnected nature of all matter, space & time. If that sounds like your idea of a good time, give this book a try. It will only crash on the couch for a few days, two weeks tops.

[KAFKA REVIEW · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book I've read from the author and I got it for free when he posted a download link for one hour shortly before it was released to the public, so I had no idea what to expect. If you are looking for an outrageous plot this isn't a book for you, but what I loved about it was how real it was. The characters felt like people I would run into walking down the street here in the American Midwest. It mirrors the crime the impoverished commit in order to survive perfectly. Recommended if you want a quick and gritty crime read.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great little novel. Probably the funniest thing of his I've read and my favorite since 'By The Time We Leave Here, We'll Be Friends'. You'll probably want to read it in one sitting.

[boofykins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice little hunk of postmodern iceberg storytelling following the downward spiral of a guy who’s lost his way in life. The ending is existentially crushing. I can't stop thinking about it.